Epidemic Encounters Influenza, Society, and Culture in Canada, 1918-20

Health crises such as the SARS epidemic and H1N1 have rekindledinterest in the 1918 influenza pandemic, which swept the globe in thewake of the First World War and killed approximately 50 million people.Now more than ever, medical, public health, and government officialsare looking to the past to help prepare for future emergencies. Epidemic Encounters zeroes in on Canada, where one-third ofthe population took ill and fifty-five thousand people died, toconsider the various ways in which this country was affected by thepandemic. How did military and medical authorities, health careworkers, and ordinary citizens respond? What role did socialinequalities play in determining who survived? To answer thesequestions as they pertained to both local and national contexts, thecontributors explore a number of key themes and topics, including theexperiences of nurses and Aboriginal peoples, public letter writing inMontreal, the place of the epidemic within industrial modernity, andthe relationship between mourning and interwar spiritualism. The Canadian experience brings to light the complex ways thatbiology, science, society, and culture intersect in a globalizing worldand offers new insight into medical history's usefulness in thestruggle against epidemic disease. Magda Fahrni is an associate professor in theDepartment of History at the Université du Québec à Montréal. Esyllt W. Jones is an associate professor in theDepartment of History at the University of Manitoba. Contributors: Francis Dubois, Denis Goulet, D. AnnHerring, Mark Osborne Humphries, Mary-Ellen Kelm, Ellen Korol, HeatherMacDougall, Linda Quiney, Karen Slonim, and Jean-Pierre Thouez.